Re: Horses and Subsistence Farming

> > Before using horses, no number of humans could > > ever catch a migrating pack of bison or other large herbivores. > > - Zac Gochenour > > But American Indians, prior to the European invasion, had no horses, yet > they caught and ate bison. > > Fred Foldvary Yes, and they did it by inducing

Re: Economics and E.T.s

> On Thu, 21 Aug 2003, Bryan Caplan wrote: > > > That seems to water down the Principle to complete irrelevance, doesn't > > it? > > Well, the notion that life is very unlikely, but happened on earth > through sheer chance, does not require that earth is "special" in > any fundamental physical sens

Re: Economics and E.T.s

Right. It's another reason why I think there isn't any basis for it. > Selection comes to mind. On uninhabited planets, sentient beings don't ponder > this question. > > Quoting "Robert A. Book" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > > > > On Thu, 21 Au

Re: Virus Warning

> It is very hard to be sure, but it seems like someone posting on this > list has the W32 virus. As best as I can tell, it is not me. If you > have been posting, please run a virus check. I believe "W32" is the prefix given to every virus that affects Windows versions from 95 onwards, includin

Re: Horses and Subsistence Farming (fwd)

(I sent this in yesterday morning, but somehow it didn't make it through -- sorry if some of this seems to be overtaken by subsequent discussion, and sorry if I'm wrong and you're getting this twice. --Robert) Robin Hanson writes: > A simple theory of farm economics says that farmers were mostly

Re: Economics and E.T.s (fwd)

(Like my last message, I sent this in yesterday morning, but somehow it didn't make it through -- sorry if some of this seems to be overtaken by subsequent discussion, and sorry if I'm wrong and you're getting this twice. --Robert) > At 04:47 PM 8/18/2003 -0600, Chris Auld wrote: > > > I've fini

Re: Horses and Subsistence Farming (fwd)

> Robert Book wrote: > >Maybe horses eat cheaper food than humans? That is, maybe you are > >right that horses eat 10x as much food by weight, but that doesn't > >mean it's 10x as much weight by dollar value. > > That's possible. > > >Maybe having a horse pull a plow with one person holding it is

Re: Economics and E.T.s (fwd)

> Robert A. Book wrote: > > Everyone seems to assume that if there is life elsewhere, it must > > be so much more advanced and more perfect than we are -- but there > > is absolutely no evidence to support that belief. I think it's > > just romantic wishful

Re: The economics of heating (AND cooling)

Steffen Hentrich: > >In germany we have a regulation for heating costs in tenements, so there > >is no freedom of contract. For commercial buildings I have no evidence. Sampo Syreeni: > I know even less about what is going on here in Finland. I suspect we do > not have explicit rules on how much h

Re: immigration: net gain or net drain?

> alypius skinner wrote: > > > This article argues for "net drain." > Bryan Caplan wrote: > Actually, it doesn't. All it claims is that immigrants reduce wages. > But this is by definition balanced by the extra surplus enjoyed by > employers. Do any of these studies take into account the effect

Re: immigration's effect on per capita GDP

> > Yet this would not strike most non-leftists as an adequate reason to import > > as many additional leftist wackos as possible. Which would be of greater > > worth: to achieve as much freedom as possible for a very short time, or to > > accept a modestly reduced level of freedom which can endur

Re: intellectual property

> So do public/university libraries fundamentally violate intellectual > property rights? Is widespread sharing theft, or is some form of durable > duplication necessary for a theft to have taken place? Is copying alone an > act of theft, or only when the copy is distributed? I wish I had answers.

DMCA

> I fail to see how the delineation and protection of property rights in the > DMCA is in any way "anti-Libertarian" -- most laws seem to be a mixed bag, > DMCA included, but the DMCA seemed to me to be a general move in the right > direction -- could you (or someone) explain why the DMCA does mor

Re: intellectual property

[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > I'm not so sure in the patent area either. Five drug companies compete to > make a formula for a drug that does X, and the one who finishes a minute before > the others gets government protection to charge monopoly prices as the > government forbids anyone else to compl

Re: intellectual property

> In a message dated 9/5/03 3:28:13 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > > >If copying allows you to do something that would otherwise require > >buying another copy, it's theft. If I loan you my copy of Fred's > >book, it's OK since I can't use it while you have it. But if I take > >it to a Xerox mac

Re: intellectual property

> on 9/5/03 3:27 PM, Robert A. Book at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > But > > wholesale copying to avoid purchase is definitely infringement, even > > if no money changes hands. > > What if it was not to avoid purchase, i.e. I would not have purchased it > anyway at the

Re: Horses and Subsistence Farming

Robin Hanson writes: > A simple theory of farm economics says that farmers were mostly at a > subsistence level through most of human history, at least until > recently. I had always thought that horses were used in such subsistence > farming, but it has come to my attention that a horse weighs ab

Re: intellectual property

Fred Foldvary at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > A uniform rule is needed that applies to everyone. Under that rule, some > > would have bought the music and others not. The net result of enforcing > > the rule is more royalties to the creator. > > > > The market rule is: to the creator belongs the

Re: Economics and E.T.s

> At 04:47 PM 8/18/2003 -0600, Chris Auld wrote: > > > I've finished a fantastic book that Robin lent me, *Where Is Everybody*? > > > The author explores the paradox that (a) It seems like the galaxy > > > should be full of intelligent life but (b) There is little evidence of > > > its existence.

Re: intellectual property

> > --- Steve Miller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> Another example: copying under fair use can reduce royalties. Suppose I > >> buy Microsoft Office and burn a backup disc. The original is damaged. > >> Suppose that without the backup I made, I would have purchased another > >> original. Again,

Re: immigration: net gain or net drain?

alypius skinner writes: > > Another example is Palestine. Now I know the natives of Palestine had no > control over immigration policies in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; > that was a British decision. But how much better off is the *average* > Palestinian--most of whom live in the West

Returned mail: see transcript for details (fwd)

If I understand John Morrow's question correctly, it was what economics rights did one have under copyright law pre-DMCA which are lost under DCMA. Here are two examples: 1) You lose the right to use (read/view) copyrighted works in a manner that is perfectly legal and does not cost the author

Re: Popular views of the New Deal

> "For 70 years there has been a holy creed--spread by academia until > accepted by media and most Americans--that Franklin D. Roosevelt cured the > Great Depression. The belief spurred the growth of modern liberalism; > conservatives are still on the defensive where modern historians are > concern

Re: Why is local currency good or bad or neither?

> Quoting john hull <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > > > It seems that there are a number of schemes to create > > currencies, on top of extant national currencies, that > > will be accepted only locally. Under such a program, > > a unit of currency, let's call it a "Local", will be > > created by a group i

Re: Why is local currency good or bad or neither?

> On 2003-10-31, Fred Foldvary uttered: > > >> At least in some cases we can analyse local currencies as instances of > >> tax evasion. > > > >So why not just use federal paper dollars for that? > > Because if you get caught, you'll pay for it. In case of local currency, > the tax authorities do no

Re: recycling

I actually wrote a paper on paper recycling, which I haven't published, but I ought to at least get in shape for the web. Jason DeBacker writes: > Hi all, > Recently, I was listening to a radio program about garbage. It was an NPR > program, so I was surprised to hear them talking about how recy

Re: Real wages constant since 1964?!

> I'm sorry to bother you with this. I just looked up > the time series for total private average hourly > earnings, seasonally adjusted, in 1982 dollars on the > BLS web site. It comes back that they've been > more-or-less constant since 1964. > > I'm floored. Is this right, or am I doing somet

Re: Why is a dollar today worth more than a dollar tomorrow?

Date: Fri, 05 Dec 2003 16:33:07 -0800 From: Fred Foldvary <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> John Hull: > >For some reason, I can't get it straight in my head why the risk-free > >rate of interest would be higher than zero. Sampo Syreeni: > The easiest example I know of is, would you be happy saving all of you

Re: Oscar Political Business Cycle

Bryan Caplan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > The Political Business Cycle story has not fared well empirically > in recent years (though Kevin Grier has done interesting work on > Mexico's PBC). But it seems overwhelming in the Oscars. It seems > like roughly half of the big nominees get released in Decem

Re: How do I convince New Agers that not everybody should get the same wage?

> Since beautiful women make me stupid, and since I am a > bit curious, I have become involved in a local > currency project. > > One reoccuring theme is that everybody should be paid > the same wage for their labor. Doctor or bagboy, > judge or record store clerk, the only fair way to do > things

Re: spamonomics

I was so ignorant, until last month I thought "Paris Hilton" was a hotel in France ;-) > Casual empiricism suggests that after Viagra, highly effective penis > enlargement products are the next most common pitch. Merchants who think > I might be keen to see Paris Hilton perform intimate acts

Re: spamonomics

> In a message dated 1/21/04 3:34:42 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > > >I was so ignorant, until last month I thought "Paris Hilton" was a > >hotel in France > > > >;-) > > Paris Hilton is both a hotel in France AND desert topping! (from an old > Saturday Night Live skit "it's both a floor wax

Re: Bank Closings

> Why do banks close at noon on Saturday? Almost any bank I have ever > been a member of has been closed on Sunday and closes at 12 on > Saturday, sometimes turning away customers who are waiting in an > ungodly line outside the store in order to cash or deposit their > checks before the bank clos

Re: the cost of spam

> The survey is rather leading -- what about phrasing it as you pay $.01 and > everyone else pays you $.01 when they send you email? > [...] > > A $.10 reimbursement for reading this message is available upon > request. (Requester pays S&H) > > -- John Morrow Send mine via PayPal, so I won't hav

Re: new paper

As a neutral party who's not mentioned in the acknowledgements and has never even met Bryan, I highly recommend this paper. It's fascinating! --Robert > My new paper on the economics of mental illness, entitled "The Economics > of Szasz" can now be downloaded from my webpage at: > > http://ww

Re: Economics of Orgasm

> http://slate.msn.com/id/2097396/ > > Discussion? > Some people have WAY too much time on their hands! ;-)

Re: insanity vs. irrationality

> On Mar 24, 2004, at 8:33 AM, Wei Dai wrote > > > > The paper makes the point that what psychology views as mental > > diseases in many cases can be interpreted simply as extreme or > > unusual preferences, and in those cases involuntary psychiatric > > treatment can not be justified as a benefit

Re: insanity vs. irrationality

> If Deirde decided not to eat enough to survive in protest of Bush's policy on > Iraq, moreover, we'd likely (at least many would likely) applaud her > principled stand and not lock her up. But if Deirde starved herself because her > family abandoned her and she could no longer bear the pain, we

Re: Virginia Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation

> Check out this website. It's a real time warp. And yes, Virginia does > license barbers! > > http://www.state.va.us/dpor/indexne.html Don't most states license barbers? Also, why is this a time warp? Don't most states (still) licence lots of professions, even if economics tells us they shou

Re: Virginia Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation

> BTW, a great short book on the economics of occupational licensing is > _The Rule of Experts: Occupational Licensing in America_ by S. David > Young. Sadly, it's long out of print and my copy was lost many years > back. You can get this book (used) on Amazon for $5+: http://tinyurl.com/2fu68

Re: the sea-change of military competition

> --- Wei Dai <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > The benefits of colonization have decreased relative to the costs. > > But benefits are still greater than costs, which is why there continue to > be colonies, such as Puerto Rico, Chechnia, Tibet, and the West Bank of > Palestine. > > Fred Foldvary >

Re: the sea-change of military competition

> I'm not an expert, but I think that bombs have improved substantially in a > number of ways over the last two hundred years: > > - accuracy of remote detonation > - size - lots of smaller, powerful bombs > - availability of household chemicals that can easily be used to make > bombs (see the Okla

Re: lotteries and elections

> On Tue, 31 Aug 2004, Dimitriy V. Masterov wrote: > > > I don't have an answer for you, but it seems important to point out that > > not all lotteries have a negative expected payoff. Large, multi-state > > jackpots are often a "fair" bet, even after taxes. M. Christopher Auld: > How does that co

Re: lotteries and elections

Dimitriy V. Masterov writes: > If my memory serves me, when no one has a winning ticket, the pot gets > rolled over to the next round. When you have several large states that run > a joint lottery, the sum can get really enormous when this happens, so > that the expected gain is positive even with

Re: lotteries and elections

> Quoth Weidai: > > > "Why have economists latched onto the idea of "expressive voting", when a > > much simpler explanation is that most apparently irrational voting really is > > irrational? Of course "expressive voting" preserves the assumption of rationality, > > but there is still the problem

Re: Nobels

7;s a bad thing to have > expressive prefs running things here...I wouldn't have bought so much > stock in Tullock if I were using my own money > > On Wed, 22 Sep 2004, Robert A. Book wrote: > > > > http://www.nobelpreisboerse.de/stocks.aspx?stc=6 > >

Re: Nobels

> http://www.nobelpreisboerse.de/stocks.aspx?stc=6 > > A fun-money stock market in economics nobel prize winners. Barro's > currently in the lead, followed by Krugman, Prescott, Williamson, and > Fama. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my stock in Tullock pays > off Krugman? Egads --

Re: Cost-plus financing

What, no postings on the Nobel Prize? Is this list still functioning? ;-) Now, on to the topic at hand: Dan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > Do you know of any studies of cost-plus financing, especially as used by > > the US government in funding aerospace projects? I know this is one of > > th

Re: Cost-plus financing

> On Mon, 11 Oct 2004, Robert A. Book wrote: > > > What, no postings on the Nobel Prize? Is this list still functioning? ;-) > > We are all still in mourning for Tullock's yet again having been passed > over by the Committee. Please, leave us in our grief. > >

Re: another use for idea futures (fwd)

mary, with a link to a more detailed web page, is below. --Robert Book [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Forwarded message from Mark A. Livingston - Date: Tue, 19 Oct 2004 18:14:31 -0400 (EDT) From: Mark A. Livingston To: Robert A. Book Subject: Re: another use for idea futures (fwd) Robert, [ Fee

Re: another use for idea futures (fwd)

> On Wed, Oct 20, 2004 at 02:13:23AM -0400, Robert A. Book wrote: > > I think what you want is the Banzhaf Power Index, developed by Banzhaf > > (surprise!) in the 1960s. I forwarded your post to a friend of mine > > who's done some work on this, and discovered he's

Re: Now Bush to win 1.5:1

At 5:33 EST Robin wrote: > >Tradesports, IEM, Betfair give Kerry a 71 to 74% chance to win. > At 10:02 EST, Robin wrote: > Tradesports now gives Bush a 62% of winning. Doesn't this big swing undermine the theory that markets are consistently good predictors of elections? --Robert Book [EMAIL

Re: Krugman on Rep and Dem "virtue"

> Oh, I see that Mass doesn't have even one Republican county! > > I likewise see that Oklahoma (where the wind goes sweeping down the lane) and > Utah don't have even one Democratic county. > > David > You could use the percentage vote for each candidate in each county in those states. Actually

Re: personal finances survey

> Oops, the link is: > > > http://www.jumpstartcoalition.com/upload/2004%20Survey%20with%20answers.pdf > > Bryan Caplan wrote: > > > There is a press release about high school students' low scores on this > > survey of personal finances, but I'm impressed by how well they did. > > Unlike beliefs ab

Re: personal finances survey

> In a message dated 11/12/04 1:42:43 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > > >What's up with question 32? 52% male and 52% female? > > > Well maybe 4 percent of them were hermaphrodites. I see that at the > university where I'm teaching (NOT GMU) they're having a seminar on people > who aren't > 100%

Re: personal finances survey

e "I get a refund every year." --Robert > --- "Robert A. Book" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >If the income tax were eliminated, which of the following would be > >true? > > a) You would have less money, since you would lose your

Re: Regulating Positional Goods

Ron Baty writes: > Given that there is little intrinsic value to being tall, but rather it is > to being taller than others, would not the wide spread use of genetics to > enhance height decrease the value of being tall. Are you sure about that? When I'm trying to reach the high shelf, I want to

Re: the answer is...

Another question: The exit polls showed that reported income was positively correlated with the percentage for Bush. See http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/pages/results/states/US/P/00/epolls.0.html and scroll down to "Income." I know there were lots of problems with the exit polls, but it is poss

Money, sex, and happiness

If I recall correctly, a few months ago we were discussing the paper by David Blanchflower and Andrew Oswald on money, sex, and happiness. I just noticed a blog post by Jim Lindgren whch has an excellent discussion of some of the cross-correlations in the paper. He discusses some differences betw

Arthur Laffer

There's an interesting (to me, anyway) interview with Arthur Laffer here: http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/opinion/columnists/steigerwald/s_300457.html --Robert

Re: Arthur Laffer

> > In a message dated 2/7/05 11:46:21 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > > > > There's an interesting (to me, anyway) interview with Arthur Laffer > > here: > > > > http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/opinion/columnists/steigerwald/s_3 > > 00457.html > > > > --Robert > > > > Oh, thank goodness

Re: senior discounts

> I was chatting just now with my dad (age 66) about discriminatory > pricing, and he remarked that senior discounts are anomalous: why should > a class with more than average wealth *and* leisure need extra tempting > to go to the movies? He suggested cultural lag: once upon a time the > elderly

Re: senior discounts

> Robert A. Book wrote: > > First, for off-peak movies and the like, the idea is to fill > > the seats that would otherwise go empty; in other words, convince > > the seniors to see movies int he afternoon, so seats are available > > for full-price customers at night

Re: Exogenous Policy

Jason DeBacker writes: > If we look at empirical evidence, it seems that > people do not vote in a self interested way, but rather vote based > on group-interest. Given this fact, is policy really endogenous? > > It seems that the most important characteristics in the > liberal/conservative divide

Re: Exogenous Policy

> > I think you are mixing up correlation and causation here. On what > > basis do you say that "most important characteristics in the > > liberal/conservative divide are age, race, gender, ..."? Perhaps on > > the basis that we have polling data that can be broken down by these > > categories?

Re: Laffer Curve

> For what it's worth, I recall a Treasury study in the late 1980s that > concluded that the tax cut of 1984 was 95% self-financing. > > David Do you have a citation for that study (or a copy)? If "95% self-financing" means what it seems to mean, that would mean tax revenues actually declined, ri

Re: Laffer Curve

> > I'm just wondering if it is even > >possible for the supply and demand curves to be shaped shaped in such a > >way that the Laffer curve does not apply to some market. > > Since you asked... > > Take an income tax and the very standard constant elasticity formulations for > demand and supply (

Re: Laffer Curve

> >> Ls=S [w(1-t)]^b > > > >Doesn't this allow labor supply to be unbounded? And isn't this a > >problem since, for example, you can't supply more than 24 hours of > >labor per day per person? > > Only if the wage is unbounded too. You might find ways to increase > your work without bound if your

Re: Laffer Curve (fwd)

[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Congress imposed something like a 100% tax on luxury boats (as I recall, as > part of the tax hike of 1990), and found that they collected zero revenue from > the tax. > > So we do have empirical evidence that higher marginal tax rates can produce > less revenue. It was

Re: Laffer Curve

Kurt Wickman writes: > The Laffer curve is probably the best macro approach to tax analysis around > (though it should rightly be called "the Ibn Khaldoun-curve", but > nevertheless). But being macro it hides more than it shows. I have tried to > make the Swedish economict Knut Wicksell come alive

Re: Laffer Curve

David ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) writes: > It's funny, during the 1970s people commonly attributed the > excellent rates of economic grown in Taiwan and Hong Kong to the > "Confusion work ethic" while completely ignoring the poverty of the > hundreds of millions of Chinese right next door in Communist Ch

Re: Laffer Curve

David Levenstam ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) writes: > Indeed. And thanks also for the material on the luxury yachet (are > there non-luxury yachets?) tax from the 1980s. It's remarkable that > a 10% rate nearly eliminated the US industry. Imagine what would > have happened had my failing memory been accu

Re: Laffer Curve (fwd)

Kurt Wickman is having trouble posting, and asked me to forward this tot he Armchair list. - Forwarded message from [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Date: Mon, 02 May 2005 11:04:11 +0200 From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Laffer Curve Robert, Thanks for mail. For some reason the armchair-list does

Highest Valued Use, and Consumption

I had a rather unsettling thought recently, and I'd like to run it by the ARMCHAIR group and see if any of you can tell me if this is (a) correct and well-known, even if I somehow missed it (citations please!), (b) completely wrongheaded (reasons please!), or (c) correct and actually new. Keep in

Re: Katrina and the Evacuation of the Poor and Infirm: Market Failure?

Michael Giesbrecht writes: > The government (local, State, and Federal) appropriated responsibility > for the Mississippi River levy system, the drainage systems, the pumping > systems, the road ways, and the bridges, but apparently, they left it to > the market to provide the service of evacuating

Re: Katrina and the Evacuation of the Poor and Infirm: Market Failure?

> In a message dated 9/6/05 8:50:04 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > > > I'm not sure the premise is entirely correct.? About 30% of the > > (former?) population of New Orleans is below the federal poverty line, > > yet 80-90% > > > > The federal poverty line is just a politically-determined level a

Re: Katrina and the Evacuation of the Poor and Infirm: Market Failure?

[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Well I would guess that a median-income American of the 1950s would have been > less inclined toward rape, pillage, and homicide than what we've seen in > recent days. I'm sure it's still a relatively small percentage, but I'd bet > good > money (if we had such a thing)

Re: Katrina and the Evacuation of the Poor and Infirm: Market Failure?

> At 00:40 2005-09-07 EDT, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > > Did we have any similar natural disasters in the 1950s that come to mind? > I think this sort of wanton lawlessness didn't start until the summers > >>during the Vietnam War in the late 60s. > > After the tsunami disaster in Asia there was

Re: Katrina and the Evacuation of the Poor and Infirm: Market Failure?

> At 13:12 2005-09-07 -0400, Robert A. Book wrote: > > >> After the tsunami disaster in Asia there was no plundering and looting on > >> this scale, although the destruction was maybe 100 times that of Katarinas > >> in terms of lives lost. Why is that, do you th

Re: paid parking a market failure?

I think the problem is, that idea that marginal cost pricing is optimal is in some sense related to the assuming that marginal cost is rising at the optimal point. Recall that many authors define the supply curve as "the upward-sloping portion of the marginal cost curve." That model was conceived

Re: paid parking a market failure?

> > I seem to recall learning that rather than > > demonstrating an inefficiency, the > > presence of inventories represents a form of > > insurance against uncertainty in > > demand. > > David Levenstam > > Right, but suppose that the parking lot is an evenly > rotating economy, and the parking us

Re: paid parking a market failure?

> --- Xianhang Zhang <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > This would be true if it were possible to charge > > different people different prices for parking based > > on congestion. > > It is possible, and is done in practice. > Many parking lots charge more during peak times than > in other times. Th

Re: paid parking a market failure?

> --- "Robert A. Book" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > 5 cars come at 1pm and SIX cars at 2pm. > > During that time, charge just high enough so that all > who want to park, can. The last car in does get a > space, if he is willing to pay. > > >

Re: Historic districts

> Does anyone know of any studies on the economic impact of > designating neighborhoods in big cities historic districts? Does > doing this create any net benefits? > > Cyril Morong Do you have access to EconLit? If so, try searching there. If not, I search on "historic district*" and got 11 hit